Hooked On Margate City Hall

MARGATE — A few years ago, the boss was having a "misunderstanding" with the city. He needed someone to talk to the bureaucrats, someone who could learn from them and reach a common ground.

So he sent Bill Dowd. And Dowd got hooked on City Hall.

"I don't know; I just walked into it," he said. "I never thought I'd get involved this much, but the more I got involved, the more I liked it."

After his supervisor at JM Lexus asked him to make contacts in City Hall, Dowd became more involved personally in city government. He has since served on two advisory boards, and commissioners recently appointed him to the city's most powerful advisory board, the Community Redevelopment Agency.

The five-member CRA board helps form policies to reinvigorate Margate's beleaguered business district. The members stand on a sturdier political ground than members of other advisory boards, because for commissioners to remove someone from the CRA board, they must show cause and allow members to appeal their removal in a public hearing.

CRA board members also enjoy a four-year term but must live or work in Margate. They can resign at any time, something that has happened twice for the seat Dowd, 32, now holds.

For example, former member Tom Ricci, appointed when commissioners created the CRA in 1995 resigned about two years ago, said CRA Executive Director Jeff Oris. After Ricci resigned, commissioners appointed Donald B. Jaffee, chief financial officer of Northwest Regional Medical Center, to the board.

Jaffee resigned in March after taking a job with a hospital in Colorado Springs, according to city records.

"I have enjoyed working with the agency over the past two years and wish you and your team much success in the future," Jaffee wrote in his resignation letter to board Chairman Jeff Modlin.

Commissioners on April 12 unanimously voted to appoint Dowd to the empty seat.

But there was a bit of controversy over the method of that appointment. A frequent critic of the commission, Rich Popovic, said city officials never advertised the position and should have waited for more people to apply.

"How can the commission just appoint somebody without posting it on the board?" Popovic asked rhetorically.

Dowd said he was the first person to apply for Jaffee's seat, and he learned about the opening because he attended the public meeting in which Jaffee announced his resignation.

"It wasn't a secret that there was an opening available," Dowd said.

Dowd's term expires in October 2001.

Jeremy Milarsky can be reached at jmilarsky@sun-sentinel.com or call 954-572-2020.